


One Interesting Week

by Rusted_Crutches



Series: Species Swap AU [2]
Category: Cafe Cardamari Tales (Webcomic), Splatoon
Genre: Gen, Inkling!Tetrox, No beta once again, Octoling!Arnick, Species swap au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-05-30 19:32:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19409923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rusted_Crutches/pseuds/Rusted_Crutches
Summary: After a strained argument with Belladonna over letting Arnick, a mysterious octoling no one’s quite sure of, on team Toxink, Tetrox manages to land him a tryout for sometime next week. ...Though, he won’t be getting it just like that. There’s a catch.Belladonna doesn’t quite trust octolings, and wants assurance that Arnick is safe enough to have on the team — if he makes it. So, in exchange for a tryout, Tetrox will be housing Arnick for the following week, proving to Belladonna he isn’t the dangerous menace that she suspects. Desperately wanting Arnick on the team, Tetrox of course agrees. However, she and Arnick haven’t known each other that long, and they have an iffy relationship as it is, and this week could very well make, or break, their friendship.





	1. Night Zero and Day One

**Author's Note:**

> HO BOY, It's been, uhhh nearly two month huh? I promise I didn't mean for the update for this series to take so long!! fgdhjs. It's just this thing was SUPPOSED to be a one shot, but then my rough draft was 5,000 words longer than I had estimated, and that kinda intimidated me, so I backed off it a bit to write something else (which was a BAD idea) and pretty much just lost track of time along with some of my motivation. HOWEVER i've pushed myself to at least get this first part out so I can get the ball rolling, and hopefully get some inspiration back.
> 
> No idea how many parts there will be, still have to decide how i'll split the rest of this up as I write, but for now, enjoy this chunky first chapter. (There probably won't be any updates until August, so sorry bout that! but I will continue to work on it periodically so it doesn't die)

**Night Zero** ,

If you were to ask, Tetrox would tell you her absolute favorite things in life is making friends and socializing. She just loves being surrounded by other people, and can’t get enough of it. It’s something _deeply_ ingrained within her that she can’t quite explain. She’s been the epitome of a social butterfly for as long as she can remember. Ever since she was little blob of ink, running around getting purple colored goop everywhere.

Naturally, years of experience interacting with and befriending others, she excels at socializing. Whether it be a casual chat with mutual acquaintances at a party, or making small talk with strangers in an elevator, she’s a natural. She can get along with just about anyone and everyone. Something about her just speaks to people. She’s like an old friend you haven’t seen in ages. You don’t really know much about her, but it feels like you two have history, forgotten, but not lost. She carries with her that comfortable and friendly atmosphere everywhere she goes, encouraging even the most antisocial of people to open up to her and start a conversation.

However, her need to make friends and interact with others doesn’t _just_ come from her natural socializing spirit. Sure, Tetrox loves making friends for the sake of having friends and having a good time conversing with others, but there’s _more_ to it than that. More than _anything_ , she just likes _being_ there for people, loving, supporting and helping them whenever they need it. Ranging from a major shift in their lives, or minor breakdown from a stressful day, she’s the first out of anyone to offer her shoulder. She’s always the one to be by their side

After all, there’s so many people out there without a pillar of support to lean on. And she’s made it her goal to give them at least one person they can depend on. Something she herself desperately needed, and _wished_ she had growing up. Whether they’ve lost the one they previously had, or never had one in the first place, too many people in this world are left feeling alone.

It takes _a lot_ for someone or something to scare Tetrox away (she’s more likely to do the scaring off, actually), so she often befriends the _‘creeps’_ and _‘weirdos’_ many people and society deem unapproachable, and tend to avoid. She holds no prejudice of any kind, and finds it difficult to see the bad in genuinely good people — even if that good is hidden deep down. She believes _everyone_ deserves respect and kindness. Even if they don’t think they deserve it themselves.

She goes out of her way in search of the isolated loners. She makes a spot for the outcasted weirdos. She accepts the shunned rebels. She looks past the superficial and uncontrollable characteristics. She gets to know them all as _people_ , not the twisted, disfigured, dishonest characterchures formed by presumptions by herself and others. Tetrox works hard to bring those types of people out of the shells they’re trapped in. Helping them make friends, and teaching them how to be a good one themselves. She makes sure they’ll _never_ be left behind again. 

And, overall, Tetrox has been pretty successful in her endeavors. She’s made plenty of friends over the years, and genuinely helped them all in some way. She has a nearly perfect track record, proving there isn’t anyone out there she can’t befriend. _‘They all break down eventually’_ she likes to say — jokingly of course.

Well… at least, that was until a few weeks ago, when her aforementioned nearly perfect track record became even less nearly perfect. When she met an octoling named Arnick.

Now _Arnick…_ Arnick’s a little… _peculiar_ , lets say. He’s nothing like anyone Tetrox has ever met before, and she’s having a hard time being successful and befriending him, getting him to open up. Well, she _was_ successful at first — at least for a little while. Well, a couple of weeks, maybe… at most.

When she first met him, he was an unfriendly, antisocial, standoffish (and a little aggressive, honestly) recluse that wasn’t too keen on Tetrox at first. He wasn’t keen on anyone, really… But that wasn’t anything she couldn’t get past, and she did eventually — faster than she expected, too!

They were good pals in a matter of days. They were talking, getting to know each other, and were becoming fast friends. His attitude really took a 180, and he really surprised her (it was a welcomed surprise, of course). He was really opening up and letting Tetrox in, like he hadn’t done with anyone else. Things were going _so_ great. He was still a little standoffish and didn’t really initiate conversations, but he was getting better every day. Things were really looking up.

...And then it wasn’t. Everything came falling down and they were back to step zero.

One day he just… it was like a switch had been flipped. She came back one evening and he had reverted back to his old self. _Worse_ even. He gave her dirty looks and refused to talk to her at all. At times he even straight up _ignored_ her all together. Tetrox couldn’t find any reasonable explanation for his behavior. What could have happened where he suddenly started acting like this? She didn’t know, and It left her confused and frustrated, maybe even a little betrayed.

Well, at first, she thought maybe she had upset him in some way. But what it possibly could have been over she didn’t have a clue. Whatever she did, she hoped maybe he just needed some space for a little while, and that after a few days he would calm down and talk to her. That he’d go back to normal. …And well, he calmed down sure enough. But he didn’t go back to normal. Nor did he talk to her. _Ever again._

When she saw him a day later, he was a lot less aggressive and angry like he had been that day… but he was still just a _little_ angry and a _little_ aggressive. He still wasn’t the same person she’d gotten to known. He was just who he was before. Closed off and refusing to talk to anyone. Just a little less so...

That happened a couple of days ago, and Tetrox still hasn’t figured out what’s going on with him. It has her really frustrated, and she’s ashamed to admit it, but she’s left more irritated than upset like she was initially. She just didn’t _understand_ , and there was no way she was _going_ to understand unless Arnick said something. _Which he obviously wasn’t going to do any time soon_.

Aside from when she had to, like taking him to meet Belladonna yesterday trying to land him a spot on the team (which Tetrox already promised weeks ago, and couldn’t back out of), Tetrox had been avoiding him. She wasn’t proud of it, but being around him was genuinely difficult. Avoidance for the most part seemed like the best option for them. It’s not like there was any productivity happening when she came by to visit. And if he decided he wanted to say something, he would come to her.

In hindsight, it was an incredibly stupid plan, and it was bound to blow up in her face eventually.

Because she refused to take the initiative and try solving the problem herself, she was going to be stuck in what would probably be the most painfully awkward situation anyone has ever been put through. She would be stuck housing Arnick in her home for the following week. She was being forced to live with the person she has _specifically_ been avoiding. 

In fact he was already here, moved in just this afternoon. All courtesy of Belladonna and her _wonderful_ ideas. But this could also very well be a punishment for her dishonesty by the all powerful and knowing universe. _Stupid universe_.

Anyway, Tetrox was dreading the coming week. She was being forced to confront the situation head on with no preparation or any idea what it was about. She, along with being stuck together in a small apartment, could very well make the whole thing worse. She didn’t like things how they currently were, she didn’t want them to escalate. She needed to figure things out, and fast.

...But all that could wait until tomorrow. It was currently 11:59 at night, and she needed to get a good night's rest if she wanted to put her plan into motion. The last thing she needed to this week was being groggy and sleep deprived throughout the whole thing. She already had _enough_ to deal with.

So she flips off the lights and plops down on her bed after a change of clothes. Setting her alarm for 7:00 A.M the next morning, she slips on her eye mask and tries to convince her nerves to calm down enough for her to actually get some sleep.

Tomorrow was going to be the start of one interesting week.

Lord knows she _wasn’t_ prepared for it.

* * *

**Day One,**

Tetrox awakes early the next morning bright eyed and bushy tailed. Well, as much as she can be, waking up over an hour earlier than she’s used to, at least. Do octolings _really_ do this everyday? She doesn’t understand how. They must be some sort of crazy powerful mutants or something to have _that_ kind of will power. She just felt so dragged out. Tetrox would stay in bed until her normal wake up time if she had a choice. She definitely considered it at least once, as she laid there in her bed, five minutes longer than necessary.

Tetrox groans in defiance as she stares at the ceiling for a moment, before rubbing her eyes. She sighs, mentally preparing herself to get out of bed. Regardless of her _mild_ fatigue, she did manage to get a good night’s sleep. A full 7 hours. And it’s just enough for her to get up and get ready to start the day. She pushes herself out of bed, takes a quick shower, then a nice long beak brushing, shoves on some clothes, before finally heading out of her room.

Day one, here we go.

She walks into the living room just down the small hallway warily. He was set up to sleep in the room across from her own, and she wasn’t sure if he would _really_ be up this early or not, and didn’t want to wake him. Though, it doesn’t really matter, as she spots Arnick sitting on the floor in front of the TV (which is off) as she walks in.

He looks to her out of the corner of his eye, but does nothing more to acknowledge her. Great... She was secretly hoping maybe he would sleep for a bit longer so she wouldn’t have to confront him just yet. ...Though, maybe she could distract him. Prolong it a little bit.

The TV turns on with the click of a button as she grabs the remote from the side table next to the couch. She watches in slight amusement as Arnick’s startled. His body jerks in place in reaction to the sudden light and noise. He stares at the television intently, mesmerized by this foreign object. Tetrox wasn’t sure if he was amazed by the quality of the display and sound, or if he genuinely never had seen a TV before. She sets the remote back down quietly, and heads to the kitchen.

Though not feeling particularly hungry yet herself, Tetrox decides she should get to making breakfast. She was sure Arnick was probably starving, having skipped dinner the previous night. And probably every night before that, all the way back to six months ago. He needed a big and hearty breakfast for sure. Even if things hadn’t been so great between them recently, she wasn’t going to deprive him food. Plus, maybe this would help mend things a little bit — whatever it was.

Tetrox steps into the kitchen and stops when her feet touch the cold tile floor. She stands there in silence for a moment. She looks from the cupboards, to the pantry, to the fridge, multiple times. It occurs to her that she has absolutely _no_ idea what to make for him. She has no idea if she even has any proper ingredients to make something he _can_ eat. Octolings, as she had learned, were strictly carnivorous, and Tetrox herself had a primarily vegetarian diet. She doubted there was _any_ meat, or even _meat like_ substance, in the apartment.

After a quick scan of the fridge and freezer, her suspicions are confirmed. In fact, she isn’t just low on meat — she’s low on everything. The fridge itself is _completely_ empty, and the only things left to eat in the cupboards and pantry are crumbs of previous ransacked snacks. She couldn’t even make breakfast for _herself_.

Huh, wasn’t she supposed to go shopping yesterday? Oh yeah, _she was_ . So there was _literally_ nothing in the apartment. Well, that certainly wasn’t good… She mentally kicks herself for not running errands when she had the chance. It’s not like it’s _Tetrox’s_ fault, though. She _would_ have gone out and gone shopping if _Belladonna_ hadn’t thrown all _this_ onto her. Not that it was Arnick’s fault either… This whole situation was already starting to get frustrating.

She looks over her shoulder back to Arnick, still entranced by the TV. Tetrox knows how he gets when he’s hungry. And she _does not_ like it when he’s hungry. This whole thing was sure to be disastrous if he didn’t get at least _one_ meal today. But how was she gonna get that to him.

If it were anyone else, this wouldn’t be a problem. If it were someone like Cyanthia or Belladonna, she could just go down to a store real quick and get what she needed before heading back. Heck, she could have taken them _with_ her with no problem. But… this was _Arnick_ . She hasn’t known him more than a few months, and (especially with how distant he’s been recently) she doesn’t really trust him. Tetrox knows he could very well run off the second she turns her back, and who knows _what_ would happen if she left him here by himself. The last thing she needed was coming home to a burning apartment building or asphyxiated octopus. With her luck, it’d probably be both.

Tetrox looks over to the oven’s clock display. It’s only 7:09, and the few stores that open their doors around this time are further in the city, far from Tetrox’s apartment. All the little mom and pop grocery shops around here wouldn’t open until 9:00, maybe even later. Damn it.

She isn’t sure what to do. Taking him with her or leaving him here, either way it was sure to end in disaster somehow. But with no food, did she _really_ have a choice? If she waited until 9:00 for a nearby store to open, she was sure to get her face chewed off before it was even 8:30. And Tetrox very much liked her face intact, _thank you kindly_.

Looking back to Arnick once again, she contemplates. After a moment or two of looking, she gets an idea. She loudly snaps her fingers a couple of times, trying to get his attention with the noise. He doesn’t respond. She does it again once or twice more, and still nothing. She wonders…

He’s pretty fixed to that TV. She’s sure nothing short of a splat bomb exploding next to his face could possibly get his attention. He’d probably stay like that all day if she let him. Hmm.

...The closest store open at this hour isn’t _too_ far away, she thinks. If she sprinted back and forth both ways, ran a couple of lights, and magically found a few unknown shortcuts, she could _theoretically_ make the trip within half an hour. She could walk out real quiet like, lock him in, and be back in just enough time before he even noticed she was gone.

And so, without another thought, Tetrox carefully and quietly sneaks over to the front door, just a few feet away from the kitchen. She takes her reflective gear off the coat hanger (which thankfully already has all of her necessary items in it) and slips it on along with her red high tops. She slithers out the door, peaking back in one last time at Arnick, before she makes her way downstairs and takes off sprinting down the street.

* * *

By the time Tetrox returns to the apartment building, several grocery bags in hand, chugging up the stairs no faster than a jog, she’s ready to punch herself in the face. Several times. With a hammer, in fact.

What in the _world_ got into her that made her think _sprinting_ for half a mile (10 blocks both ways) was even _remotely_ a good idea? Seriously, was she _insane?_ She’s a good and speedy runner for sure. Jogging, running, sprinting — she does it all the time. But this… this? This was next level. She’s never sprinted so much as a quarter of a mile before, let alone half of one. This was something you’re supposed to train for. Like, _six months_ of preparation. And she just did it without so much as a _day_.

 _Uhg_ , she felt like she was gonna throw up. No, she was definitely going to throw up. At _some_ point in time of the day.

 _God_ she was in _so_ much _pain_ . _Everything_ hurt. Her legs, her arms, lungs, throat. It was the kind of pain that makes you believe the only source of relief if chopping off and removing your own body parts. The kind that you just want to collapse on the floor from — and the second you do, there’s no getting back up. It all burned — but was somehow freezing. Like when you lay in a tub of water so hot it feels cold. Except in this case she also felt it on her _insides_ , and it wasn't at all bearable. It was _agonizing_.

She just wanted to _die_.

...She should really stop thinking about the pain. This was just making it _ten_ times worse.

Tetrox finally makes it up the second set of stairs to her apartment, and sets the several plastic grocery bags on the ground in front of her door. She has to fight the urge to just drop them on the floor. Both for the fear of food splattering everywhere or falling down the stairs, and preventing a noise complaint from the downstairs neighbors. God, how bad she was wishing she got that apartment on the first floor right now.

Resting her forehead against the door, she relishes in the coolness it brings to her burning skin. She takes out her phone and taps its screen for the time. 8:15, it read. _Yeah, 30 minutes at most my ass,_ she huffs to herself in irritation. She bends over a little bit and rests her hands on her knees to prevent herself from keeling over on the spot. There’s no way she’s gonna have the energy to make breakfast _now._ The whole trip was pointless. Should have just risked it and waited for a nearby shop to open

She leans away from the door and picks up a bag or two before knocking on it with her free hand weekly. She hopes Arnick will be kind enough to open the door for her. However, A few seconds go by with no response, and she has to knock again.

Oh, wait, duh, he probably doesn’t know who’s at the door. She knocks again, but this time a little harder, and yells out to him.

“Hey, uh it’s me,” She saws awkwardly “Uhm, I just went out for a while to get some food, you think you can let me in?”

…

No response. She frowns

Jesus, was he still glued to the TV? Maybe her plan worked a little better than she thought… She groans and digs out her keys, shoving them into the lock, and opening the door. She probably shouldn’t have let him sit so close and stare at it like that, now that she thought about it. He was gonna hurt his eyes for sure. Maybe need glasses if he kept it up. She enters the doorway and mutters.

“Hey, you probably shouldn’t sit so close to the TV, you’ll go blind—” She stops halfway through her sentence when she steps a few more feet inside, past the wall blocking her sight to the living room. Before her, what should have been Arnick sitting three inches from the television, going blind at a steady rate, was an empty room. The TV was still on, same volume and channel as it was when she left, but Arnick was nowhere to be found.

She stares at the room, puzzled. She wears a confused expression on her face. She looks to her left, into the kitchen, expectantly, but he isn't there either. She’s worried for a moment, but quickly calms herself at the completely intact apartment. Nothing was on fire, or missing/out of place. Well, besides Arnick, of course. Which, was worrying within itself, but far less so than a house fire.

Tetrox continues onward and sets down the bags she’s holding on the kitchen island and rubs the back of her neck. She looks back to the small living room, as if Arnick would suddenly appear and she just hadn’t seen him the first time. Maybe she took too long and he went back to bed to sleep off the hunger. She feels a twinge of guilt. She quickly retrieves the remaining grocery bags and begins putting things away. _Should have gone shopping yesterday_.

After quickly sorting through the empty bags into either the trash, or ever growing pile under the sink that everyone seems to have, she starts on their breakfast.

She takes a few slices of breakfast ham she bought and throws it into a sizzling pan, accompanying it with some eggs to scramble just on the other burner. In no time at all, ten minutes in fact, their food is done and ready to serve on two big white plates. She stacks two large slices of ham onto Arnick’s plate, giving herself one. She scoops all of the eggs out of the pan for herself, knowing fully well he wouldn’t be eating any. Her stomach growls, and Tetrox thanks herself for working through the pain to serve herself some delicious breakfast. Though it does little to soothe her still sore muscles

“Food!” She yells out a little excitedly, grabbing her plate as she walks over to the living room.

She stops just shy of the couch, listening for a response. She finds the lack of one a bit odd. Arnick wasn’t a very heavy sleeper, and was actually quite easy to disturb. Over the few times she discovered him sleeping on a random rock in the valley, she found she was never quite quiet enough to approach without disturbing him. She sets her food down on the coffee table in front of the couch and walks over to the room she set him up in. She hesitantly knocks on the door.

“Hey, I made us breakfast, you wanna come out and eat?” she asks.

She waits for a moment, just standing expecting a response. But there’s no answer. Okay, weird. She knocks once more, this time a lot harder. Again, nothing.

Tetrox catches herself rolling her eyes. There’s no way he _doesn’t_ hear her. What was originally genuine concern was quickly reforming into irritation. _He’s just ignoring her at this point_. She frowns. Is he seriously trying to sleep the day away when this is his first warm meal in nearly a year? Well, unfortunately for him, she isn’t afraid of barging into other people’s room with no concern of privacy. She would not be ignored. She turns the door handle (surprised to find it unlocked) and barges into the room. The moment she enters, she’s shocked at what she finds.

Looking inside, it’s completely empty. Aside from the futon and bedding given to Arnick the previous night, and scattered papers about the floor, there was nothing. Oh, okay, good. She was just shouting at an empty room for the past two minutes. Y’know, like an absolute looney. God, she’s so glad no one was around to see that. ...And speaking of no one, where the hell was Arnick? She hates to admit it, but she starts to become a little worried. It’s fine though, this apartment is only so big, he’s probably just in the bathroom...

That thought dies as she turns to head to the bathroom door. It’s wide open and she can see clearly inside. No Arnick. She even rushes over to look in the shower and behind the wall, making 100% sure he wasn’t in there — and he wasn’t.

An unsettling feel of dread plants itself deep down in her stomach.

Oh no,

No no no no no no. 

Tetrox quickly and hastily checks the three remaining rooms in the apartment. Despite all of them having been locked, specifically so he couldn’t get in, she hoped and prayed he was somehow in one of them. God, _please_ . However, one by one they all turn up empty, and she feels like she’s going to have a panic attack. Desperately, she rechecks behind the bathroom door as well as the shower curtain. She rushes over to the living to check under the couch. She even rummages through all the cabinets and drawers, frantically, _hoping_ he was hiding. But to no avail.

She practically turns the apartment upside down, inside out, and he’s nowhere to be found.

Arnick isn’t _in_ the apartment.

“Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. _Don’t_ freak out,” Tetrox says to herself as she paces the room, absolutely freaking out “ _No big deal, no big deal_ , just need to call cuttlefish. Call him and everything will be _fine_ . He won’t be mad or angry. All you did was leave Arnick alone all by himself, giving him an hour window to run off and escape, _knowing fully well he’s a flight risk_.”

God, She was so dead.

Hadn’t been housing him even full 24 hours yet and he was _already_ gone. Honestly, a very small part of herself anticipated him disappearing at some point, but she never though it’s be so quick! She just had to go and jinx herself, _didn’t she_?

Tetrox stops pacing and stands in the center of the living room. She takes her phone out of her pocket, and dials cuttlefish number shakily. She regrets it the second she hits send, but doesn’t hang up. The silence in between each ring is another punch to the gut. As each one comes, she gets more hopeful he won't pick up. She _prays_ he wont pick up. That she gets _one_ more opportunity to fix this.

But just as the last tone before the voicemail rings, he picks up.

“ _Yes, hello?_ ”

She takes a few seconds to muster up the courage to respond. She doesn’t know what to say. Doesn’t know where to start. But she has to say something. She opens her mouth to speak.

However, before she can even get the words out, she hears a thump come from behind her. She whips around startled, facing the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. She has a clear shot to the back window. Her mouth drops agape in shock at what she sees. Through the window comes Arnick, straddling the sill one leg inside the apartment, one out. One hand holds onto the window frame above, stabilizing him. He’s frozen in place, as if petrified the moment Tetrox looked at him. Both Him and Tetrox stare at each other blankly for several seconds. Neither of them move. Neither of them so much as twitch.

“ _Helloooo?_ ” Cuttlefish calls from the other end of the phone “ _Anyone there? Tetrox, my dear, I do believe you may have rump dialed me by mistake—_ ”

Tetrox snaps her mouth and phone shut as she stares at Arnick in utter disbelief. She continues to stare quietly even as he begins moving again, and steps fully into the apartment. After a few moments she finally finds the right words to speak, and breaks the silence.

“I-- what-- you-- where--” she stammers out, struggling as she still tries to comprehend the situation. “Where the heck did you just come from?” She yells out, as if she didn’t already know herself. Her voice is loud, but her tone is more a mixture of surprise and confusion rather than anger “Didn’t you hear me yelling, _, I was looking for you everywhere?!_ ” She steps towards him as she shouts.

Arnick just raises a brow at her, confused. He looks at her as if waiting for her to say something more. But they both stay silent. After a moment or two, he vaguely gestures to the window, _which he just done crawling through mere moments ago_ , behind hind him with his head.

“ _H_ ow ? ” She demands as she nudges him aside and looks out the window. What the _heck_ was he doing hanging off the side of a building? For shits and giggles? What, was he suicidal? Was he _actually_ trying to escape— “Oh-- wait, what the…?”

Looking down, Tetrox sees a small balconette just large enough for a decent sized potted plant to fit on. It was blow the window just far enough to where you couldn’t see it unless you were leaning out the window. However, it wasn’t too far from the window sill that climbing in and out wouldn’t be difficult.

_But that doesn't mean it wasn’t dangerous as hell._

Seriously, what was he doing just _casually hanging_ off the side of a building? Was he crazy? Some sort of daredevil? Did he have no common sense or self preservation? Well… Y’know, now that she thought about it, he probably didn’t. It’s not like he ever gave a second thought to jumping between floating platforms _before_. It’s honestly amazing that he’s survived this long on his own. Then again he is a trained— no wait, shouldn’t she be yelling him by now?

Precisely.

“You know” she begins, as she leans back inside closing the window behind her “I don’t know _what_ got into you and made you think that was even _remotely_ safe or smart—” She cuts herself off abruptly when she turns to where Arnick was standing and sees he isn’t there.

She turns her head to look around comically. She spots him over in the kitchen grabbing his plate of food. Paying no mind to Tetrox whatsoever. She considers chastising him for walking away from her, but ultimately she decides not to. He’s not a damn toddler. If he _were_ a toddler, walking away from her like that wouldn’t _necessarily_ be considered rude.

Tetrox begrudgingly walks to the living room without another word. She retrieves her plate of luke warm food and sits down to resume eating. She’s too sore and hungry for this right now. She’d chastise him later or whatever. All she could hope for now was that he didn’t fall three stories to the ground. She probably shouldn’t leave him like that again… it was her own fault really.

Uhg, she wasn’t ready for the rest of this week.


	2. Days Two And Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey hey, look who's back before august with an update!! This chapter is slightly shorter than the first, but hey it is what it is.
> 
> I've also decided how I was gonna split this up! It's gonna be a full 4 chapters, and I hope to them out relatively quickly. Fingers crossed! Hope you enjoy chapter two!

**Day Two,**

It’s around 2:00 in the afternoon and Tetrox is up making lunch. She’s preparing some nice and hot grilled cheese for both herself and Arnick. Actually, more like a _ball/_ patty of meat and cheese for Arnick, but hey, close enough, right? Well, she supposes it doesn’t matter what it’s called. He likely didn’t give a second thought to the names of his meals and would eat it regardless, as long as it’s made mostly of meat. Made things easier on Tetrox. One of the _only_ things he made easy on Tetrox...

She turns her attention away from the frying bread to a pot of tomato soup just on the other burner and begins to stur. She turns the burner on high as she thinks back to the day before. A day that surely took years off her lifespan. She was more stressed in that span of fifteen minutes than she’s ever been in her entire life! Though, she didn’t really like to think about it. It was probably better for her health if she focused on the positives...

Besides Arnick disappearing and nearly giving her a heart attack, yesterday went pretty well. If she does say so herself. Tetrox only had to keep him Arnick climbing out the window a few more times, and he has yet to pull anymore ridiculous stunts like that as of today. Despite her minor breakdown and panic when she thought she really lost him, Tetrox thinks things are going smoothly…! Well, in the sense there’s been no fighting or anything like that. It’s more like things are…  _ civil.  _ Civil’s the word.

Things would — and  _ should  _ — probably better by now, but there’s still the fact Arnick isn’t talking to her. He still seems mad or upset for whatever reason, and she has still yet to confront him on the matter. True, this is only his second day of staying here and they have plenty of time to talk things out  _ eventually…  _ but Tetrox’s not sure she can take much more of this. She was putting up with it for now, but It was a matter of time before she cracked. The silent treatment was, quite frankly, driving her  _ crazy _ . 

It’s just, Tetrox is  _ such  _ a social person. She loves  _ talking  _ to people and making friends. So much so that it borderlines on being a necessity, such as food and water is for everyone else. For Tetrox, not socializing is like not being able to blink. Sure, she can put up with it for a little bit at first, but it will quickly become more and more unbearable as the seconds drag on. Though, in this case, she  _ could  _ blink, if she  _ really  _ wanted to. But then she runs the risk of her eyes becoming permanently stuck shut, starting a similar vicious cycle of being unable to reopen them.

You can probably sympathize with how she’s feeling.

And she can’t just leave the house like she normally does when she gets all stir crazy. She has to stick with Arnick and keep an eye on him at all times. She’s  _ stuck  _ here. ...But then again, she supposes Arnick is, too. Though, he hasn’t exactly expressed any disapproval with remaining indoors all day (let alone  _ at all _ ). Besides, he got  _ plenty  _ of sun when he was hanging out of the window yesterday. That would do him good for at least a little while… she hoped.

She stops stirring the pot for a moment and looks behind her to the living room. She’s checking for Arnick, making sure he hasn’t scampered off as she was lost in thought. Thankfully, he’s still there, sitting in front of the TV, staring through it boredly. He’s fidgeting a bit in his seat, though it’s subtle enough to easily overlook. He just might be as stir crazy as her already… They really were  _ stuck  _ in this together, huh?

The timer on the oven goes off with a few soft beeps and Tetrox turns back to her meal preparation. Though not before taking a quick look down the bedroom hallway at the lone window. There hadn’t been any escape attempts  _ yet _ , but there was always time for him to sneak off. Thanks to yesterday, that was now a conscious fear  _ constantly  _ on Tetrox’s mind.

Every time she turns her back, she listens attentively. She searches for even the slightest sign of movement, waiting to turn around the second Arnick makes a move. Even as she prepares their meals, a majority of her concentration is on focusing her hearing, waiting to pick up  _ any  _ sound that may come from his direction. Luckily, this type of multitasking isn’t too difficult for her. It’s actually quite easy. Having used to babysit many sneaky children in the past, her ears were likely more fine tuned than those of a blind man. Arnick would be caught before he fully stood up off the ground.

Needless to say, when she turns around to head to the living room food in hand and he  _ isn’t  _ there, she nearly drops her plate.

“ _ Really?! _ ”

Tetrox sets down her food in a hurry, rushing over to the hallway window. She scans the rooms out of the corner of her eye as she passes, making sure he wasn’t still inside. As expected, he isn’t in any of them. But still, how?! She hadn’t  _ felt  _ the air  _ shift  _ so much as  _ heard  _ Arnick walk down the hallway! The floor was carpeted, but it was nearly impossible to walk around the apartment without sounding like you’re stomping! Not to mention doing it in a matter of  _ seconds _ . Her head wasn’t turned but less than a minute! She swears he must know how to fly…

“Why, you—!” Tetrox says angrily as she opens the window fully. 

However, there’s no octopus in sight as she looks down onto the mini balconette. There’s no  _ trace  _ of Arnick at all. Not so much as a boot scuff on the smooth white plaster. Strange, did he head to the bathroom...? The window  _ was  _ closed when she got to it, but she didn’t hear any doors in the apartment close — and she  _ just  _ checked. And they all squeak, so there’s no way he could sneak around room to room —

Then it hits her. A steep feeling of dread settles in her stomach. For a moment, Tetrox panics assuming the worst. Oh god, she knew this was going to happen! He went and fell off the side of the building and went  _ kersplat  _ just like she told him he would! Of course this would happen  _ day two _ .

She covers her eyes with a single hand, squeamish. She doesn’t want to look down and see what she thinks she's about to see. She doesn’t want to witness the gruesome and horrific sight that comes with a person splattered across the concrete. She doesn’t want to see the physical embodiment of her failure to watch over Arnick like she should have. But she has no choice. She mentally prepares herself, slowly pulling her hand away from her face and peering over the edge.

However, she doesn’t see anything — at least, she  _ wouldn’t  _ have if she had  _ actually  _ gotten the chance to look over. 

Before she gets the chance to peer over the edge down at Arnick’s presumed demise, something catches her attention out of the corner of her eye. As she pulls her hand from her eyes she notices something, just to the side of her. She snaps her head over to the left and stares at the small balconette sitting under the window of one of her empty bedrooms, not five feet over.

In it she sees a single foot. Attached to a leg. Attached to an octopus caught halfway out a window, frozen in place. She stares at Arnick, and he stares back at Tetrox. There’s only the sound of silence, and the wind.

“Wha— You— You better get back in there!” Tetrox exclaims as she shakes herself out of her trance. She’s leaning out the window towards him, a displeased expression on her face.

Arnick continues to look back at her, expressionless. He sits like that for several moments, silently, before blinking once, then beginning to move again, making his way further out the window. Ignoring her like she hadn't said anything at all. Her face scrunches in frustration. Why, she outta...

“Don’t make me come over there!” She shouts, this time more desperate (seriously, what the heck was wrong with this guy). Though, her pleading falls on deaf ears as Arnick continues to ignore her. He only pauses for a moment to look at her out of the corner of his eye a single time. She glares at him spitefully.

Tetrox exhales from her nose forcefully, and begins to back out from the window. Arnick stops to watch her as she does, curiously. “Fine, you wanna be that way?” she says “I’ll just come and get you myself!”

Stepping back into the apartment fully, Tetrox turns to her left and tries the door handle to the room he was in. She cries out in frustration as she jiggles it, but it doesn’t turn. Locked.  _ Of course _ . And she didn’t know where the damn key was (having  _ mysteriously  _ disappeared yesterday), and didn’t have time to look. Arnick would fall out of the window before she got anywhere close to finding it. God, why couldn’t he just listen? She leans back out the window and yells over to him.

“You better open that door!” She yells at him. Though, as expected, he doesn’t so much as  _ acknowledge  _ her presence.  _ God _ , she’s never been this irritated by a person in her  _ life _ . She was almost tempted to leave him out there and let him suffer the consequences himself. Almost. She  _ had  _ to do something.

She steps back inside to the apartment once more, fixing her ruffles clothes as she does. She heads to a small storage closet just off the kitchen, and searches through it for a minute or two before she finds what she’s looking for, and returns to the hallway. She pokes her head out of the window Again, and calls out to Arnick over the sound of the wind and traffic far off in the distance.

“This is your last warning! Get inside before I make yah!”

She awaits a response, hoping she won’t have to do what she’s thinking of doing. This would be  _ so  _ much easier if he just listened. She was on her last leg. This was her last resort, and it was only going to end badly. She had a feeling this wasn’t gonna make him too happy.

However, when Arnick looks at her and sticks his tongue out in mockery (face still otherwise blank), all hesitation goes out the window.

Quite literally.

“ _ That’s it. _ ”

She moves to the side, making room for herself as she pulls a long object beside her, and Arnick watches her curiously. In her hands she holds a red broom. It’s pretty thin and quite frail, but as long as she doesn’t purposefully try to bend it, it should be fine. It’s sure to get the job done. It  _ better _ … Welp, now was the best time to find out. 

She steadily holds it by the end and begins to swing it at Arnick, careful to hold on tight so she doesn’t drop it, and so he can’t snatch it out of her hands. She catches him off guard, and surprises him with a hard whack. Then another, and then another. He makes indistinguishable sounds of surprise and displeasure as he tries to fight back against the broom. In the back of her mind, Tetrox is hoping and praying no ones watching them right now…

“GET,”

_ Whack _

“BACK,”

_ Whack _

“IN,”

_ Whack _

“THE APARTMENT!”

With one final hit from the broom, Arnick falls back inside with a thump. Tetrox quickly (and quite clumsily) closes his window with the handle, triumphant. She can’t help the smug smile that comes across her face as she stands tall, broom gripped in hand.

“If you want lunch, you best come out in the next five minutes! I’m not lettin’ you near that microwave again!” She yells as she walks back to the kitchen.

* * *

**Day Three,**

As Tetrox stirs their pot of dinner, she watches the yellow liquid mixture turn round and round, swirling like a whirlpool. In truth their food was already done, the burner turned off 5 minutes prior just before the timer would have signaled it was ready. She should serve it up soon, before it gets cold. But she can’t seem to pull herself away. When she was up making meals, Tetrox felt content and relaxed. That’s how she’s always been, she enjoys cooking. But now, now things were different. This wasn’t a pleasant pastime she got to take part in throughout the day; it was an escape.

During the past few days,  _ these  _ were the only times Tetrox could truly let herself relax and loosen up a little. These were the only times she didn’t have to keep a watchful eye on Arnick — though, that was still only about half the time. Every other minute of her life was chaotic and suspenseful. Any second he could (and usually  _ would _ ) run off and do something or another that required her intervention. That man rarely ever sat still, so she had to chase after him  _ often. God,  _ he’s driving her up the wall!

Tetrox had always hoped that if she ever eventually moved out of this place, she would get her deposit back. It was well over 1,000 dollars and that was good money to have when you needed literally everything, because all your important items were packed away. But that likely wasn’t going to happen, and Tetrox was either never going to be allowed to move, or be stranded in the middle of one without a dollar to her name. And it would all be because of  _ him _ .

In the past 72+ hours, Arnick has caused the following;

Water Damaged floors from the bathroom all the way into the living room, hallway, and kitchen, from leaving the sink on for over  _ half an hour _ .

There was the oven on its last leg and couldn’t heat up worth anything anymore from being used to heat the house  _ all day. _

Then we have the built in microwave above said oven, which straight up almost fucking  _ exploded _ , from a metal  _ fork  _ being left in side. It wasn’t left in by  _ accident,  _ it was intentionally put there to see what would happen. Tetrox found it unbelievable!

Oh, yeah,  _ and he’s still climbing out of the damn windows! _

Tetrox groans internally. With their microwave being out of commission and oven not doing too hot itself, they didn’t have anything to reheat their meals with. Hell, it was barely handling this can of chicken noodle soup by itself. She didn’t have enough cash saved up to both run errands and buy a new microwave this week. And that only meant one thing.  _ She would have to go back into work. Uhg _ .

She manages to convince Mr. Grizz to give her a whole week off to deal with this nonsense, and it was all for nothing. If she had known any of this were going to happen, she wouldn’t have taken time off. Or at least not this much! Now how was she going to talk Grizz into giving her unexpected time off ever again? She doesn’t look forward to those conversations one bit. This entire week was turning out to be a wash.

Tetrox looks back at the living room as she continues to stir, almost glaring. There Arnick sits in front of the TV, watching the screen boredly. It was the only thing she had to distract him with long enough to keep him out of trouble — occasionally. Though who knows how much longer that would even last. It seemed each passing day he grew more and more disinterested, flipping through the channels, not finding anything worthy to watch. It’s only a matter of time before he denounces it completely and goes in search of something else (destructive) to do. 

She sighs and turns back to their food, finally deciding to serve their dinner before  _ someone  _ got too antsy.

As she begins to serve, she finds her mind wandering. She  _ still  _ can’t seem to get over Arnick’s silent treatment, but at the same time she couldn’t muster the courage to say anything about it. Most others she probably could, and would say something to, but now she was more hesitant than ever. She had been trying to ignore it against better judgement, and clearly it wasn’t working. 

At first she was afraid of her fears being confirmed. That  _ she  _ had done something to upset him and lead him to act like his. But now, she was afraid bringing it up would only make things  _ worse _ . He would get even more upset and spread even more havoc. She couldn’t even handle him how he was being  _ now,  _ she didn’t want to know what he would be like  _ worse. _

And how would he get into Toxink like this? Granted, she didn’t much appreciate how things were between them right now, but she still wanted him on the team. She knew this would be good for him in more ways than one, and she already promised him. Whether he took that promise to heart is another story — but regardless, she sticks to her word. This was an opportunity he really needed. An opportunity to change his life forever — for the  _ better _ …But who knew if her endeavor would even be successful. She was growing more doubtful each passing day. She couldn’t shake these thoughts of failure.

...Maybe, maybe she should call Cuttlefish for some advice. Maybe he can speculate what’s going on. After all, he’s known him much longer than Tetrox. He could knock some sense into him, right?

No.

Tetrox Shakes her head. She needed to do this by herself. This was her problem to deal with, and she was the one to do it. She wouldn’t drag anyone else in this if it was perfectly solvable on her own. She could do this! She had her kindness, and charisma! She just had to try a little hard, push a little hard — or, uh, rather,  _ start  _ pushing. She’d keep at it… for a little while longer, at the very least.

She grabs the two bowls of soup and turns around, setting one of them on the kitchen island. “Come and get it,” she yells out.

* * *

Tetrox found herself surprised at Arnick’s behavior throughout the rest of the night. Not once did he try and sneak off (at least that she could tell), nor did he manage to break anything else in the apartment, much to her relief. She wasn’t sure if he sensed her stress or just finally got tired of it all and wanted to take a break. Either way, she was thankful just to have some down time. Though… it’s not like she had the chance to utilize it.

While it was nice having a calm and quiet apartment, Tetrox couldn’t find it within herself to relax. His change of behavior was sudden.  _ Too  _ sudden. She didn’t trust it. This was  _ far  _ too suspicious. It had to be a diversion of some sort. He was just doing this so she’d let her guard down, and he could make his move. Any moment he would jump into action, and bolt for the  **_fucking windows._ **

…

But he never did. He remained in the living room the whole night, and rarely left. He was perfectly well behaved throughout the rest of the night.

Up until three A.M

She awoke early in the morning to the sound of her doorbell ringing off the hook. It was so loud and obnoxious, neighbors on every side were sure to hear it. She groans at both the annoying sound and prospect at another noise complaint. Who the hell was up this late, and why in the world were they at her door? Whoever they are, she’s tempted to ignore them. They’ll give up eventually, or one of the neighbors will come out and tell ‘em to knock it off. Right?

Wrong.

A solid minute and a half of persistent ringing, and Tetrox storms out of bed angrily to confront the stranger at her door. She slips on her robe and dashes out of her room across the apartment in 10 seconds flat, grumbling all the way. The nerve of some people! Oh, once she opened that door, the person standing there was gonna get the talking to of their life! She and opens it in one smooth, swift motion, not realizing the top lock was already unlatched.

Just as she’s ready to yell at whoever was up at this  _ ungodly  _ hour, Tetrox pauses as she see the person standing in the hallway. All of her anger drains immediately, quickly replaced by confusion and a hint of dread. “Uh, hello,” she says, puzzled.

Before her stands the apartment complex’s security guard, a tall and lanky stingray lag named Phillip. Next to him is Arnick, his upper left arm is in the much stronger Phillip’s right hand. He glares up at him angrily, and he struggles weakly in attempts to break free of his grasp. Oh, lord  _ what did he do now? _ ”

“Your friend here nearly gave me a heart attack,” Phillip says unamused, voice low and gruff “He was standin’ in the parking lot looking up at the moon like some sort of weirdo. He was creepin’ out the other residents.” Arnick grunts indignantly as he pulls particularly hard against the other man’s hold. Phillip only tightens his hand and yanks his arm. “Aren’t you supposed to be keeping an eye on him?” he asks.

“Oh, y-yes!” Tetrox says nervously “I’m sorry ‘bout this! I hope he didn’t cause too much trouble! I really don’t know how he got out…” Well, he used the  _ door  _ obviously, but how was she supposed to keep an eye on him while she was  _ sleeping?  _ God, this _ wasn’t  _ good.

When the captain help her convince the building manager to let Arnick stay with her this week, she was under  _ strict  _ obligations to accompany him outside of the apartment at  _ all times.  _ Being caught alone would result in  _ extreme  _ consequences. This was made very clear to  _ Arnick  _ as well, and you’d think  _ maybe  _ he would have remembered that. But, hey, he wasn’t supposed to make a lot of noise or destroy building property or disturb the other residents either, but nothing stopped him! It was a miracle Arnick hadn’t been kicked out already.

“Ah, don’t worry about it none,” Phillip says, waiving a tendril in the air as if to dismiss the subject

“He didn’t do nothin’ worse than make me almost piss m’self. Arin didn’t see ‘em, and the other residents were just makin’ sure he was wasn’t lost or somethin’.” He lightly shoves the octoling beside him into the apartment. Arnick stumbles as he barely catches himself from hitting the ground. He glares back at the man but he pays no mind, holding his attention on Tetrox “I’m not gonna  _ tell em  _ so don’t you worry, but you best make sure he doesn’t get out again. I can’t promise he won’t get caught next time.” 

“Of course. Thanks a bunch, I appreciate it,” Tetrox says with a gracious smile.

Phillip nods and takes his leave with a tip of his hat and a little wave. Terox is ever so thankful he was such a kind person. She knows if it were anybody else, Arnick would have been shipped back to the valley by now. That’s certainly how the manager would have it… God, why is he so reckless?

She sighs and closes the door, locking it behind her. She then turns to Arnick arm’s folded. He stands just to the side of her, looking at her blankly. Like he always does. Not sheepish or apologetic. Just blank. Like nothing was wrong. Tetrox’s eye twitches. Does he  _ genuinely  _ not understand what he did wrong? What he just  _ risked _ ? Is he doing this on purpose? She would believe that if she didn’t already know how dense he could be.

A part of her is tempted to chew him out right here right now. Yell at him for nearly getting them  _ both  _ in trouble. But she doesn’t. She tells herself that she’s too tired. That it’s too late and the neighbors will hear. She lets a lengthy exhale out of her nose, signaling her displeasure.

“Sneak out again, and i’m locking your bedroom door,” She says, though there’s little to no real threat behind it. Which he likely knows.

She leaves it at that. Making sure he actually enters his room, Tetrox then heads to her own. She leaves the door open as she swiftly enters, not trusting him not to bolt in a matter of seconds. She then lays down in her bed in such a way she’s sitting up and facing the door, so she can see his bedroom situated directly across from her’s. She’d stay up all night watching if she had to — though she may regret it in the morning. She sighs and lets her head lightly fall against her headboard, making a ‘clunk’ sound.

She was already beginning to dread the rest of this week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Once again here is my tungle!](https://rusted-crutches.tumblr.com/)


	3. Chapter Three — Days Four and Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a little while because I had to take a small break from writing lest I lose my mind (also because this thing ended up a lot longer than anticipated...). The last time I took a break was in the middle of working on Chronic Recollection, geeze. But all good now, and I hope you enjoy this big chunk of a chapter!

**Day Four,**

Tetrox awakes the following morning drowsy, a little cranky, and  _ more  _ than a little irritable. Though, all of that has little to do with the events of last night — well, partially. Sure the rude awakening was none too pleasant, and she didn’t appreciate the newfound worry of Arnick sneaking away at night, but she could hold that off until later. He hadn’t bothered her for the rest of the night so she slept well enough. And though she was still mad, for  _ that  _ she was thankful. She had a long shift at work today, and she really needed her rest.

_ And thus was the source of Tetrox’s irritation. _

The clock on her bedside table reads 7:30, and she’ll be due to start her shift at 8:00. 30 minutes of peace until  _ absolute hell _ . Stacking boxes, counting inventory, money managing, aka; a total mind-numbing bore fest! After an already stressful week and in desperate need of relaxation, this was the  _ last  _ thing she needed. ... _ but it’s not as though she has a choice. _

She takes a pillow to her face and yells into it out of frustration. Why did the universe hate her so much? Here she was doing a good deed trying to help a guy out, and it's been nothing but a pain in the ass. Her only solace is getting to take her anger out on rude customers. That was one of the good things about working for Mr.Grizz; he doesn’t let his employees get pushed around — at least not by anyone other than  _ him _ .

With a verbal hiss of exasperation, Tetrox slithers out of bed and gathers her remaining things. Already having gotten dressed earlier, all she needs is to grab her reflective vest from the coat rack and head out the door. Not to say she won't drag her feet or dilly dally. Though, remembering Grizz getting on her for the  _ last time  _ she was late, maybe not…

She exits her bedroom and heads for the door passing Arnick, sitting in the living room watching TV, on her way. Apprehension fills her and she considers for a moment as she pauses. The last time she left him here alone she nearly had a heart attack. Probably wouldn’t be the wisest to do that again. She barely holds back a grumble as she grabs the remote and shuts off the TV, and Arnick looks to her in what  _ almost  _ be called surprise.

“I’m headin’ into work. I need some extra cash,” she says, setting the remote back down on the table and retrieving her vest “I’m not leaving you here alone after what you did, so move it, or I'm not buyin’ your breakfast.” She tries to hide the irritants in her voice, but she doubts she was successful.

Arnick gives her an annoyed look and huffs but does little else to protest as he follows her out the door.

* * *

After grabbing a quick meal and a drink from a coffee shop just down the road, she and Arnick head to the station, and board the train to her work. It's only a 5-minute commute and she could have just as easily walked, but she was running a little behind. Besides, if Arnick decided to run, he wouldn’t get very far in a crowded station. Her goal for today was to keep him as  _ close  _ as possible. She wasn’t in the mood for his shenanigans.

The train heads further into Inkopolis’ center and soon they approach their stop and get off. They head into the direction of a popular shopping market, Tetrox not letting her guard down for a second as they approach. Luckily it wasn’t busy yet, still early morning (at least, early to  _ inklings _ ) so there was no crowd for him to get lost in. Not easily.

“We gotta head down to a storage facility nearby for the goods,” Tetrox says as they walk out from the station “Then we go set up shop. C’mon.” She urges Arnick to pick up the pace.

She unlocks the storage unit and pulls it open with haste. She pulls out several crates of golden eggs and stacks them on top of each other, briefly inspecting them for any damage — the crates, that is. The eggs were already disfigured and flawed so it didn’t matter if they got jostled around in delivery. She was just making sure the containers wouldn’t fall apart on the way over to the shopping stand.

Sure, these eggs weren’t worth too much, but they still sold. There’s only been a handful of times where she hadn’t rid of all of them by the end of the day. Losing or shattering a single one of these wasn’t an option.  _ That was part of her paycheck _ .

And with that in mind, Tetrox refrains from asking Arnick for any assistance. She’d rather throw her back out than trust him not to break anything. She huffs as she picks up the stack of crates and they exit the facility, her forcing him to walk ahead so she could keep an eye on him. 

After a few minutes of walking, they make their way down a street through a row of shopping stands, carefully avoiding other vendors still setting up. They saunter up to an empty cloth canopy smack next to a beach shop selling an assortment of nick nacks and diving paraphernalia. A spider crab sits in a chair underneath the shade of the stand canopy, reclining back in his chair relaxed as he surveys the shoppers and fellow merchants. He gives Tetrox a wave of his claw as she sets down her crates of eggs. She then picks up a clipboard and begins filling out the necessary paperwork to reserve her work space.

“Well, well, well, if it ain’t the woman ‘erself,” the man exclaims “What’re you doin here’, I thought you had the week off?”

“Hey, Roger.” Tetrox waves with a small but genuine smile as she puts down the clipboard “And yeah I was, but money got a little tight so here I am. But what about you, why are you here so early?”

Roger was an old friend of Tetrox. They met nearly a year ago when he was a struggling trader trying to earn money and make a name for himself in the local market. He was having a hard time getting off the ground ( _ real _ bad at socializing, often drove away customers) so she helped him out with his people skills and he found his footing. They’ve been reserving their shops next to each other ever since.

He waves a claw in the air “The miss ‘as been pushin’ me to do more work. Save up for a vacation. I’ll be off soon, though” he yawns and looks at his watch around his wrist “But ‘nuff bout me, who's your friend?”

Tetrox looks around her for a moment and spots Arnick standing near the center of the canopy, looking around bored with his hands in his pockets. He’d been so quiet she  _ almost  _ forgot he was there. She’s a little surprised he’s still there and wasn’t causing a fuss. Part of her expected to have pulled something by now.

“ _ Oh _ , sorry, I'm a little frazzled today,” She laughs a little nervously “Uh, this is Arnick, he’s… an  _ acquaintance  _ of mine. He decided to tag along today.” Tetrox swears she sees him roll his eyes out of the corner of her vision. Her jaw tenses as she tries to maintain her chipper smile.

“Huh, not every day you see an octoling,” Roger says with a hint amusement “Nice to meet you.” He nods and gives him a little wave.

Arnick doesn’t respond, staring at Roger with an empty look on his face. An awkward silence passes between them. Roger looks back and forth between the two with a look of curiosity.

Tetrox steps in front of him to obstruct his view of Arnick “Sorry about him, he’s a little shy! He’s not trying to be rude—”

“Nah, I get it.” he brushes off the subject “I was the same way when I first came here. Big scary city.”

Tetrox just nods, taking the crates of golden eggs and begins setting up shop.

It takes about fifteen minutes to get everything in order. Mostly because Arnick kept poking around with rogers wares every five minutes, not listening when she told him to stop, and forcing her to drag him away by the arm. Luckily, Roger seemed mostly amused by his behavior and didn’t mind when he broke a shell or two (which she offered to pay for but he refused). He even “ _ subtly _ ” nudged a few other items in his direction to see what he would do,  _ which really wasn’t helping _ .

When she eventually gets Arnick to plop his ass down in a seat and  _ behave  _ after Roger leaves, the shop  _ finally  _ opens.

Things quickly get busy as her usual customers and welcomed newcomers storm through the market. Many crowds around the front table as others extend into the street. The line had already begun to form while she was setting up, and it was all she could do to keep the queue moving. She barely manages to feed into demands, scrambling around to collect money, deliver eggs — and taking a peek at Arnick every so often — at the same time.

Tetrox was used to her little shop being busy, but this was admittedly a little more than she was used to. Though she wasn’t at all surprised. Quite the opposite really. This was the only shop in all of Inkopolis that offered cheap golden eggs like this on-demand, and she was its sole employee. The mere few days she had taken her break left quite a large build-up of customers.

A far less experienced  _ egg wrangler _ would have been overwhelmed. Lucky for her she has ages of experience to rely on. And she was damned good at it.

As much as she complained about the demanding hours and chaotic work environment, Tetrox  _ does  _ enjoy her job. It keeps her busy and distracted where any other job would have needless downtime. Even as the rush of people slows, she doesn’t get more than a couple of seconds. She doesn’t like taking breaks when she works, it disrupts her flow and tanks her motivation. It's tiring sometimes, but at the end of the day, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

With the stressful events of this week, Arnick himself, and even more yet to come, she would much prefer a vacation away from it all. But for now, she’ll take any distraction she can get.

* * *

Several hours pass by in an instant and Tetrox finds herself with only one egg remaining. It's around evening time, and the sun is setting over the horizon, Her shift ends in a few minutes, and she’s looking around for anyone walking by that she can pull in to take this glorified ball off her hands. Though she gets less and less hopeful as more and more people leave the market.  _ Damn.  _ She was really hoping she wouldn’t have to head back to the storage unit. She was going to miss the train.

She looks over to Arnick. He sits in the same chair he’d been occupying for the good of nearly four hours. He’s slumped down, head resting on his arm in either sleep or boredom. She’d been watching him so closely he hadn’t so much as dared to stand up and stretch his legs.

A part of her feels a little bad. They hadn’t eaten since early this morning, and he’d been sitting there with nothing to do. Meanwhile, she had been occupied the entire day. ...Well, she didn’t feel  _ that  _ bad. If he hadn’t kept pulling his disappearing acts, they wouldn’t  _ be  _ in this mess, would they—

“Excuse me, is that egg for sale?”

Tetrox is startled and she whips her head back to face a woman who had approached the table. She takes a second to collect herself, a little embarrassed at her own surprise.

“Yeah, the last one left in my shop, you lookin’ to buy?” Tetrox straightens herself.

“Sure — but, uh, how much is it?”

Tetrox looks down at the egg in her hands, examining it. It was pretty damaged, but she had sold worse today. “Well, this one goes for about $275. What’re you thinkin’?”

The woman grimaces “Oh, dear that's quite a bit… is there any way you can bring it down?”

“Well, that depends, what are you offering?” She asks incredulously

“50.”

“...Dollars. You want this thing for 50 dollars.”

“If you’d give it to me.” She smiles

Tetrox looks at the woman as if she were stupid. “Lady, you know this thing is made of  _ gold  _ right? You  _ really  _ have no business askin’ me to lower the price  _ that  _ much.”

“... _ Yes _ ” the woman all but hisses “but it’s so  _ damaged _ .” She gestures to the orb in her hands “Really,  _ you  _ have no business to charge so much,” She says matter of factly.

Oh, great. One of  _ these guys _ . Normally Tetrox would entertain people like these if to waste their time and nothing else. But she did not have the time nor the energy to deal with this.

“Ma’am, some of these sell for full price  _ with  _ impurities worse than this.” A bit of a half-truth. Sometimes flawed eggs sold for much more than they were worth. Mostly in cases where people think they see ichthys in a crack or something. Stuff like that “For only $275, you’re  _ already  _ getting a steal. I’ll lower it to $150, but I ain’t going lower than that.”

She scoffs “$ _ 150,  _ are you  _ trying  _ to swindle me? $50 is  _ more  _ than generous for what you’re offering!” The woman practically shouts.

“And $150 is  _ more  _ than generous for something you won’t  _ find  _ anywhere else. Either take it  _ or leave _ .”

The woman glares at her as if ready to yell, but she instead calms herself. “You know what?  _ Fine _ . I’ll take my business elsewhere. Maybe straight up to your  _ boss. _ ”

“Ha, yeah,  _ okay lady, _ ” Tetrox says, rolling her eyes “Go right ahead. He’s just gonna tell you the same thing. Now, my shifts over.  _ Buh bye. _ ” Tetrox waves at her condescendingly.

The woman huffs and makes a few more sounds of offense, struggling to find the right words. In the end, she’s left speechless and leaves before she embarrassed herself further. Tetrox is left thankful. Really,  _ some people.  _ She’ll never understand where they get all that attitude. 

She shakes her head and lets out a sigh of relief and turns to clock out, taking a glance at Arnick as she does so.

“God, can you believe the  _ nerve  _ of that lady—” Tetrox cuts herself off and drops the golden egg she’s holding in shock. 

The seat Arnick had been occupying lays nearly folded up and abandoned on the ground. She looks around frantically, desperate and hopefully to find him standing somewhere nearby. No luck. The street is nearly empty and she can’t make heads or tails of him anywhere. She quickly panics.

“Arnick,” She calls out to him, “This isn’t funny!” 

Ha. As if this is some sort of joke.

She looks under tables and behind empty stands. She peeks in nearby store windows and down alleyways. Unbelievable, she only had her back turned for a minute! He’d been fine all day without her keeping him under constant watch, and  _ now  _ was when he decided to run off? When she least expected it.  _ Of course.  _ Oh, when she got her hands on him!

Tetrox quickly packs things up, ties them down, and closes up shop. She didn't have time to clean up as best as she wanted to, but she would worry about that tomorrow. Right now she had an octopus to find.

* * *

Several hours later, after running everywhere searching all around the city for Arnick, Tetrox's no closer to finding him. She lets out of huff of annoyance. She didn't know where he was headed, but there's no way he could have gotten far, he's never been to Inkopolis before he doesn't know where he's going! He'd end up in the sewers before he got anywhere close to where he wanted. But hey, knowing him, that could very well be his destination.

She stops for a moment to catch her breath, nearly collapsing on the spot. After an entire day on her feet, running a marathon really wasn't in the cards right now. Her legs ache and her lungs burn. The runner's high she normally craves is overshadowed by her increasing fear of not being able to find Arnick.

As the sun set lower and lower coming down to kiss the skyline, her hope runs dry. It was early in the evening now, and she wouldn't make it home if she didn't find him soon. The trains would stop running and she'd be forced to walk home. Not like she couldn't, but she  _ really  _ didn't want to.

Tetrox surprises herself at the thought and thinks for a moment. She supposes she should be more worried. Arnick lost in a big city with the potential to get arrested and sent back to the valley over something (more than likely) stupid. And she was a little bit at least. It was her job to keep an eye on him and she was ...currently not doing that. But mostly, she was just sick of his shit. She's more than expectant of his disappearing acts.

_ She should be getting paid for putting up with this… _

With a shrug, she's on the move again.

Rounding the corner of a building at a brisk jog, Tetrox stops dead in her tracks, nearly tripping over her own feet, at the sight of Belladonna and Cyanthia just down the road.  _ Crap,  _ Tetrox panics. She can't run into them now! She's busy! Quick, find somewhere to hide—!

"Hey, Tetrox!"

Before she can run she's already been spotted. Belladonna waves her arm in the air to grab her attention before slowly jogging up to her with Cyanthia right behind. Tetrox curses under her breath before brandishing a cheery smile and returning the enthusiastic wave. It's  _ fine _ just make it through this one quick conversation and get them out of here,  _ no big deal _ .

"Heeeey," Tetrox says as they approach, trying to sound casual.

“Waddya doin out here so late?" Belladonna asks, Cyanthia gives a delicate wave from beside her.

"Oh, Y’know, just got done with the old nine to five. Getting ready to head home for dinner…" She rubs the back of her head nervously.

"Huh, woulda figured you'd take the week off for this." She cocks her head, looking thoughtful. "Since you'd have your hands full with Arnick."

Yeah, well yeah she wasn't wrong "Pfft, naaaah, it's totally fine. I leave him at home all day while I work. He does just fine."

"Speaking of, how you two holding up? Not at each other's throats are you?"

Belladonna laughs, and Tetrox fakes along nervously. She looks over to Cyanthia almost like a silent plea. Cyanthia just rolls her eyes and shrugs, pulling out her phone. Clearly she didn't want to be part of the conversation.

"Nah, Nah, I'm just kidding," she says trying to stifle her giggles "But if you  _ are  _ having problems, we could always cancel this Friday—"

Tetrox grits her teeth and keeps her eyes closed to prevent glaring at Belladonna. "As I  _ said,  _ he's doing  _ fine. _ " She all but hisses.

Belladonna gives her an inquisitive look before bringing up her hands in defense. "Woah, Woah, alright, didn't mean to tread over a line. Sorry."

"It's  _ fine _ ." She insists.

Belladonna doesn't believe her for a second and grows more concerned — more genuine this time "Hey, seriously, I swear I didn't mean anything by it. ...You sure you're doing alright?"

A part of Tetrox is tempted to say no. She wants to say things really  _ aren't  _ fine. She wants to look to Belladonna for guidance. Her face is so calm and full of genuine concern like it says she won't judge her for it. But she knows it's just her imagination.

Tetrox admired Belladonna like no other. They were close, almost like siblings, one could argue. They grew up together. And because of that, she knew Bella better than anyone. All she would do is endlessly repeat  _ 'I told you so'  _ until the end of time, forever reminding Tetrox of her failure.

And she wasn't having that.

She wasn't going to give her the satisfaction. She wasn't going to give up. She was going to prove herself right. She said she was gonna get Arnick on this team and that is exactly what she is going to do.  _ She was going to do this _ . No matter how badly she wanted to quit.

Tetrox sighs and shakes her head, "It's nothing, I'm just a little stressed from work is all." She checks the time, noting she only has a few minutes until the last train leaves the station "I need to get home. Arnick gets antsy when I'm home late."

Without another word she departs from Belladonna and Cyanthia, ignoring when she calls out after her. Once she turns another corner she takes off sprinting to the train station. She still needs to find Arnick before sundown, and she hasn't a moment to lose. She needed to call Cuttlefish.

* * *

Tetrox flies up the two flights of stairs to make it to her apartment, bumping and jostling past fellow residents as she does. She even nearly knocks down an old woman she can’t seem to be bothered to care about at the moment. She knows she’ll likely get a complaint later and action may very well be taken against her, but right now she doesn’t care. The sun had already set and she needed to get to her other phone and call the captain as soon as possible.

She makes it to her front door, digging for her keys desperately to open it. She throws the door open and rushes in, claiming for a device that sits discarded on the coffee table in front of the TV. Dialing the number in haste, Tetrox fails to notice that all the lights in the apartment are on and the door had already been unlocked. But only for a moment.

Just as she‘s about to enter the last digit, Tetrox realizes. 

She does a 180 and turns around to face the kitchen. Unsurprisingly, she finds Arnick sitting at the small island counter in the center. He’s about halfway through decimating a breakfast ham. He’s stopped chewing to look at Tetrox, a mixture of surprise and confusion on his face.  _ Of. Course. _

“ _ What the actual hell!?”  _ Tetrox is fuming. “Where the hell were you all the time, why did you just wander off like that?!” she shouts, throwing her hands into the air, exasperated.

Arnick doesn’t answer verbally (as usual). Instead, he vaguely gestures to the ham in front of him and points to the oven clock behind simultaneously. It was pretty late in the evening, and neither of them had eaten since breakfast. She hadn’t had time to take a lunch break with how busy things had gotten, which extended to Arnick too.

“You think  _ just because  _ we missed lunch you can wander off like that?! How did you even get in here, you don’t have a key!”

He points to the hallway window. It’s still open.

Tetrox lets out a noise of frustration. She was just so mad! All this time spent looking for him and worried sick to the point she was going to call cuttlefish — and he’s been at home for hours?! It took everything in her power not to march over there and smack him! Okay, well, maybe not smack him, but she’d knock the food out if his hands at the very least. And boy did she want to.

But she was just.

So.

_ Tired _ .

She knows he deserves to be yelled at further. Deserves some sort of consequence. But she just didn’t have the energy nor the creativity to conjure up what. All her brainpower was being diverted to keep her sore legs from giving out on her and her lungs from collapsing in on themselves. As she came down from her adrenaline high, the pain worsened and she started to feel the full effect of her spontaneous workout.

With nothing more than a stern look, Tetrox turns away from Arnick and heads to her bedroom. She closes the window on her way. She wasn’t even hungry for dinner anymore. The door clothes behind her.

She was so  _ done  _ with today.

* * *

**Day 5,**

“Come on,  _ Move it! _ ”

With a push from Tetrox, Arnick stumbles out the door and nearly falls to the ground, barely catching himself with his hands. He looks back at her with an angry glare, but she pays no mind. Instead, she focuses on locking the door behind them, taking a particularly  _ extended  _ period to find the proper keys. Only two on her key ring and yet she still has difficulty remembering which does what.  _ Oh, the struggles of everyday life _ .

She thinks of stalling further to make Arnick squirm, but that only increased the chance he would bolt. There’s no reason to trust that she can so much as  _ turn her back on him  _ with all the hell he’s put her through this week. And she’s had more than  _ enough  _ of his escape attempts,  _ thank you very much _ .

It's gotten to the point where she’s  _ fantasizing  _ about him finally leaving. She’s even thought about kicking him out early. She won't, of course, she has a promise to keep. They have that meeting with Belladonna coming up soon, and she knows he has nowhere else to go. But that doesn’t make the thought any less appealing. She doesn’t want him gone forever. She doesn’t hate him (completely), she just wants him  _ out  _ of her apartment. She just wants back her peace and quiet — and not to be stressed for once.

With all the pressure and tension invading her life this past week, Tetrox was in desperate need of relaxing. Work had taken her mind off everything for a while, but it really wasn’t helping in the way she thought it would. She  _ was  _ going to put it off until Arnick left so she could get some alone time, but she was at her limit here. Her nerves are shot, and she’s on the verge of losing her sanity. If she let her stress and anger build up any more than it already has, Arnick was at risk of being  _ strangled to death _ .

That’s why today she was going to go out shopping at the mall. She’s not exactly the type to fawn over monetary possessions, but it was really the only thing she could think of on such short notice. Besides, it was going to be mostly window shopping anyway. She still needed to save up some cash, so she’d only have enough for a  _ few things  _ at most. Well, she had specifically what she wanted in mind, but that wouldn’t be until much later.

However, stress relief isn’t her only reason for going out today. She has an ulterior motive. A bit of  _ payback,  _ if you will.

If there’s one thing she’s learned about Arnick, it’s that he has  _ zero  _ patience. Now he had a good poker face and hide that fact fairly well,  _ but not for very long.  _ He’d pretend he was fine for all of maybe three hours at max, and then he’d start to show signs of cracking. And after that, he doesn’t last long.

One could say it’s torture, and arguably it is. Petty even. But Tetrox prefers to think of it as a  _ learning  _ experience. He  _ could  _ have stayed home by himself all day if he had shown himself to be trustworthy. But nope. He’s been a total brat. And he was stuck with her. Maybe then he’ll get his act together.

Sticking her keys in her vest she heads down the stairs, ushering Arnick to follow her.

Off to Arowana Mall.

* * *

Their first stop at the mall is a generic necessities store Tetrox can never bother remembering the name of. Y’know, Ones of those mom and pop shops that inevitably go out of business after trying so hard to compete with the giants. It’s really tiny and doesn’t have much to offer. Which is fine, she only needs a few things really. Some toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, and conditioner.

But Arnick didn’t need to know that.

They spend the entirety of the  _ hour  _ in the store, going up and down every aisle — slowly. She pretends not to know what she needs. Stopping at every other item to examine it. She reads labels front to back — sometimes she even loses her spot and has to start over. The text is just  _ oh so tiny _ . Maybe she should have browsing for reading glasses while she was there… She considered it, but she just got  _ so  _ caught up in her conversation with the cashier.  _ What an interesting young man _ .

He probably thought she was a shoplifter by the way she was  _ acting _ , but he didn’t question her.

By the time they’ve finished, Arnick was already showing signs of cracking under pressure. He’s having trouble standing still. Can’t quite decide where to put his hands. Fidgeting in place while he looks around almost widely, desperate for so much as  _ something  _ to look at as a distraction. He almost tries to run off a few times as well.

But they didn’t have time for that. His dilly-dallying. They have other places to go, more things to do. They had a long day ahead of them. Tetrox would make sure of it.

This brings them to their second stop:  _ Tremoctopodidae _ , a fancy new clothing shop that just opened on the other side of the mall. She’d actually meant to come here last week, but she got caught up convincing Arnick to meet with Belladonna. It bummed her out a bit, even though there wasn’t any way she could afford anything (far too expensive for her). Though, she wasn’t that much of a fashionista anyway. She’s perfectly content with  _ hours  _ upon  _ hours  _ of window shopping.

She takes her time in this shop, sticking around twice as long as she did in the first. She’s deliberating separate pieces of clothing for several minutes at a time. Taking things off the rack only to put them back a second later — then grabbing it again. She repeated this process several times. Now  _ that  _ really got to Arnick.

He may have been fidgeting at the first store, but something about this place made his eye twitch. She almost thought he was going to break his vow of silence and say something. She thought he would yell at her, but he never did. She couldn’t imagine how difficult it was for him to hold his tongue. Something about it just got him so riled up (and she found it  _ hilarious _ ).

This continued until Arnick tried to disappear into the clothing racks like a five-year-old trying to escape into Narnia. At that point, he nearly knocked over several racks, and she had to drag him out by the arms. Thankfully he didn't cause  _ too  _ much of a scene, which he very well could have. But they still got a few judgmental looks from the employees, and Tetrox just accepted the fact she'll never show her face in this store again.

She struggles as she drags him along the floor, his legs extended as if he's in a sitting position. His boot covered feet drag across the floor as he all but goes limp in an effort to make himself as heavy as he can.  _ For someone who wants to leave so badly, he sure isn't making it very easy. _ Tetrox yells out in exasperation as they finally exit the store and he finally stands up, allowing her to guide him away from prying eyes.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" She stares at him with wide-eyed horror "Are you a  _ literal  _ child?"

Arnick just huffs at her and looks away dismissively. Tetrox balls her fists. Oh, she swears she could smack him sometimes! (And given how this day is going, she just might.)

"Look, I get you don't want to be here, but you're just making things harder on yourself! Every time I have to turn around and keep you from sneaking off is adding more time until we leave!"

Arnick fixes her with an accusing glare from the corner of his eye. She folds her arms and glares right back with an exaggerated frown. Neither of them backs down, and it wouldn't be long before they started attracting stares.

With a reluctant huff, Tetrox breaks their gaze and pulls him along by the arm. "C'mon, we only have a few more places to hit before we can go home."  _ I'm just about as sick of you as I can be,  _ she thinks to herself.   
  


After about half an hour of wandering around aimlessly lost (for real, she wasn't just trying to waste time), they arrive at their destination. From how difficult it was to find you'd assume it was some sort of hole in the wall. They're both breathing heavily from a mixture of exhaustion, having run all around the mall, and frustration. But that all but leaves Tetrox as she practically sprints into the store with Arnick in tow, relieved to have finally found it.

She can tell without even looking at him that Arnick is confused. He looks to her for an explanation, puzzled as to why they would possibly be  _ here _ . Though she gives him none as they enter the store.

They waltz up to a large round desk that acts as the store's front register. A tall lanky urchin woman with a name tag reading  _ 'Brenda'  _ greets them, smiling. She waves away another employee she had been talking to as they approach.

"Hello, welcome to  _ 'Clutch Nursery' _ , your one-stop shop for all and anything you need for your growing offspring, is there any way I can help you today?" Brenda recites, a greeting she must have memorized and known by heart.

"Hello," Tetrox replies just as cheery "can you show me where the child safety locks are?"

"Of course, Ma'am, right this way." She ushers the other to follow her as she steps out from around the large desk and walks towards the back of the store.

Tetrox turns around and finds Arnick standing by a rack of baby shoes. He looks disgusted yet fascinated as he takes one on his finger and flails it about. He can't take his eyes off it. Tetrox almost wonders what kind of weird world he lives in when she remembers baby inklings/octolings don't have solid feet. The octarians isolate themselves from all other races, so he genuinely has never seen a bootie before. 

_ But why did he look so horrified? _

Tetrox shakes her head and waves at Arnick to get his attention. "If you stay here until I get back and  _ don't  _ wander off," she says sternly "I won't drag you around and we'll head home early. But  _ only  _ if you behave."

Arnick's eyes almost seem to light up, and he nods. Frankly, she didn't trust him still and knew this was probably a stupid idea. But Tetrox was willing to give him another chance if he wanted to prove himself. Besides, she's gotten used to chasing after him by now.

She catches up to Brenda with an apologetic smile and follows her as they continue walking.

"Always so difficult while shopping." Brenda shakes her head almost fondly as if reminiscing about something "Almost as bad as the kids sometimes, I swear."

"Yeah, I swear he reverts into a five-year-old," Tetrox mumbles as she watches the aisles they pass by, only half paying attention to the conversation.

They walk for a minute or two before they finally get to their destination, and Tetrox realizes just how large this place is. She heard about this store from a pregnant co-worker before she went on maternity leave. And  _ boy  _ she wasn't kidding when she said this place had a huge confusing layout. It doesn't look like it from the outside, but this place extended  _ really _ far back.

"And here we are," Brenda says, presenting a large wall covered from bottom to top in child locks. Tetrox looks at it amazed. It even extended left and right for several feet.

"Wow, that's… a lot," She says, not quite sure where to start.

Brenda laughs "We have quite a big selection, don't we?"

"Are you guys trying cage every baby in the city?"

"Well, I doubt we could get  _ all  _ of them…" she muses "but what about you? Anything specific you have in mind?"

Tetrox scans the wall once more, unable to discern what she may need. "Well, I'm looking for some window locks. Something really sturdy and difficult to open."

Brenda examines the wall for a moment, searching. She then leads her a few steps down and gestures to a wide selection of window locks. Which does little to narrow things down. Tetrox grabs the first two locks she spots and reads the packaging.

"Depending on their stage in development, you shouldn't need anything  _ too  _ complicated. You generally want to still be able to use your window if need be."

"Mhmm."

"Then again, you don't want anything too simple either. Those little guys learn fast. And are so persistent too!"

"Yeah… I swear Arnick might just end up breaking these… He gets into everything," Tetrox murmurs. She puts one of the locks she'd been holding back on the shelf. It was _far_ too easy to open, especially accidentally. She doubts it would even be effective against an _actual_ _baby._ Selling this thing can be legal...

"Oh my," Brenda responds "how old?"

Tetrox glances at her out of the side of her eye as a double-take. Did she hear that right? No, she wasn't paying attention. She must have said something else…

"Uh, he's been living with me for five days now. Just moved in."

"Oh, congratulations! And all by yourself too?" She sounds amazed much to Tetrox’s confusion "Y'know, it isn't easy for single people to achieve this kind of thing."

She looks up from her hands confused "I don't see what that has to do with anything…"

"Oh, no, no, no, I don't mean anything by it, it's just you rarely hear success stories —"

Tetrox ignores Brenda as she goes on and on about something or another, trying her hardest to make banter. She only gives a few nods to pretend she's listening, focused entirely on the task at hand. Admittedly she gets a little too into it, reading all the wording on the packages. But she was just trying to avoid a further awkward conversation, and she had  _ no  _ interest in hearing about horror stories of dealing with her own kids.  _ From what snippets she actually listens to, she's kinda surprised this woman was allowed to have children at all… _

She finally decides on a good window lock, one with a literal key mechanism that Arnick hopefully won't get in to. She also decides on some drawer and cupboard ones as well and grabs about five of them each. There were only three windows in the whole apartment, but she was sure investing in some spares would help in the long run. Plus she was considering putting three on the hallway window  _ alone. _

"Well, do we have everything?" Brenda asks as they reach the front register. She takes the items and scans them, ringing up their tally.

She looks over to Arnick, who she’s pleasantly surprised to find  _ still  _ inside the store. He sits on a bench in his octopus form stationed at the very front of the store, looking absolutely bored. It probably wouldn’t be much longer until he cracked and decided, fuck it and ran away. She half (okay, well, maybe a little more than half) expected him to be gone  _ already _ . She was more than well prepared to hunt him down and chase him, but not having to was more than a welcomed surprise. After all, today  _ was  _ supposed to be relaxing.

Tetrox nods quickly “Yep, this is all I need.” She takes out her wallet hastily and pays, telling her to keep the change. She wasn’t going to give Arnick a second longer to wander off. He stayed put, and she was going to take advantage of it. “Thanks for the help, bye!”

“No problem, the pleasures all mine,” Brenda waves her hand “Please, come back if you need anything!”

She smiles before turns around, facing away from the desk. Gathering her bag of items, she makes her leave. “Alright, c’mon Arnick, we’re leavin’!” She shouts as she runs past him and out of the store.

As she takes one last look to make sure she had everything, she spots Brenda out of the corner of her eye. She watches them leave, a shocked and confused expression on her face. Tetrox just shrugs and continues on her way. Though she would always wonder why she never found her reason for buying the locks strange.

* * *

Tetrox fiddles with the lock of the hallway window, growing more and more frustrated by the second.

She managed to install the others to both hers and Arnick’s bedroom windows easily enough, but she was having trouble with this one. Either this thing was defective, or something about this window was different from the others. In any case, she had been at this for nearly an hour and she was on the verge of tossing the damn thing into the street below.  _ Stupid child locks and their complicated setups… _

“You’re holding it upside down.”

She nearly jumps out of her skin at the voice that comes from behind her. She whips her head around surprised, staring wide-eyed.

_ Arnick. _

_ Of course. _

He sits at the end of the hallway opposite to her. Legs crossed, back against the wall, arms folded and a scowl on his face. He isn’t looking at her, opting for the wall facing him instead, but she can tell the dirty look is for her. She glares at him for a moment or two, as if daring him to face her. He doesn’t, and Tetrox huffs in annoyance. 

She turns back to toying with the lock “Oh,  _ now  _ he gives me the time of day,” She says out loud to no one in particular, her voice on the verge of exasperation “and here I thought he’d gone permanently mute.”

She does little to hide the bitterness in her voice. He hadn’t spoken to her all week, and  _ now  _ he just suddenly decides to speak up. Of course, the first thing he says is something chastising. Whatever just ignore him (that’s all  _ he’d  _ been doing). And what did he mean it was upside down? He couldn’t know that without seeing the instructions, let alone from all the way over there. Besides, this is the same way she’d done it with all the— oh hey, it was upside down.

“This is highly unnecessary.”

Tetrox drops the lock and refrains from clenching her fists.  _ So much for ignoring him _ . She sighs.

“Oh, you gonna stop crawling out the windows then?” She asks. He doesn’t respond. Yeah, I  _ didn’t think so _ . She resumes installing the latch.

“You act as if I'll willingly jump.”

She rolls her eyes “Willingly or not, _ I'd rather not have to scrape you off the ground after you fall to your doom _ .”

With one final shove against the sill, she successfully secures the device in place on the window, and her simmering anger comes to a halt momentarily.  _ Finally _ . She stands up, tall and proud, admiring her work. She dusts off her hands before adorning them on her hips. Not too bad, if she does say so herself. Now it was time to eat! She was starving—

Arnick scoffs “As if I'm at  _ any  _ risk.”

Tetrox turns around to face Arnick. “Oh, is that so?” she folds her arms “Then please, by all means, feel free to demonstrate you invincibility and/or flight powers you’ve gained within the past week, at  _ any time _ . I’m  _ sure  _ you’ll save your own ass when the time comes.”

“I can look after myself, I don’t need a  _ caretaker _ ,” He bites back, now looking at her, scowling.

“ _ Coulda fooled me _ .” She glares back at him, jaw clenched. “You’ve been acting like nothing but a 5-year-old brat these past few days!” The insult escapes her mouth before she even has the chance to register what she’s saying. She can’t say whether or not she feels ashamed or guilty.

“ _ I’m not some child to be coddled!”  _ He shouts sternly. She can see the anger in his eyes.

“ _ Well you sure don’t act like it!” _ she yells right back.

Arnick looks almost surprised at her response, pausing momentarily. He starts to retaliate, but Tetrox is  _ not  _ having it. The second he opens his mouth, something in her snaps. Before any words come out, the dam breaks and the river or rage comes flowing forth. She doesn’t know what he would have said. How angry or indignant they may have been. All she knows is they would have pissed her off.

Funny, she thought to herself. This entire week she had been hoping and praying he’d start talking to her again. He would give up this vow of silence and they could sit down and have a conversation. They’d get to the bottom of  _ — whatever this was —  _ and things would go back to normal. They’d be buddy-buddy again, and it’d be like nothing was wrong.

Yeah, that was the plan.

_ But now she just wanted him to shut up _ .

“ _ No,”  _ she warns sternly, just as Arnick is about to speak “Don’t even bother, I don’t wanna hear it!”

Her nostrils flare, and she can feel the sharp prick of her nails digging into the palms of her hands. Her fists shake uncontrollably against her will. Her face burns hot with fury and she knows she must be lighting up like a purple bulb. Arnick freezes in place, just staring at her.

“Do you  _ really  _ think you’ve done  _ anything  _ this past week that gives you the right to make demands?” She shouts “You’ve destroyed all my stuff,  _ nearly  _ my home, run off every chance you get worrying me sick, and  _ refuse  _ to talk to me! Not to mention you haven't so much as helped around the apartment, let alone given me a  _ thank you  _ for all I've done!”

Tetrox gets louder and louder with each word, far too enraged to start holding back now. Neighbors on all sides can hear her, but right now she couldn’t get  _ less  _ of a damn about getting another noise complaint. She could get kicked out for all she cares. Things needed to be said, and she wouldn’t get another chance like this again.

She holds up her hand and begins her list, counting on her fingers. “I’ve fed you _my_ food, used _my_ money to buy you _your necessities,_ let you use _my_ spare room and _my_ spare bed. All the while under _my_ roof!” She points to him accusingly “So whether you like it or not, _my_ home, _my_ rules.”

Arnick says nothing, and her anger rises. Nothing to say, even now? He was  _ oh so snappy  _ a minute ago. She was on the verge of exploding.

“And now he’s back to being silent,” she yells, exasperated. She puts her head in her hands and rubs her face. She was  _ so  _ tired of this.  _ Tired of him. _

She looks up at him again. “Look, I don’t—” she struggles to speak calm and quieter, though none of the anger has dissipated “I don’t know  _ what  _ I did. If I pissed you off, did something to  _ offend  _ you or otherwise. I don’t know if it’s something I can apologize for or if it’s irredeemable.” she looks to the ground, fighting off tears she doesn’t know are from anger or pain “but whatever it was, it  _ doesn’t  _ excuse the way you’ve been treating me.”

She looks back to Arnick, the ghost of a pained, almost guilty, expression on his face that she could have only imagined.

“ _ I don’t deserve any of it. _ ”

And with that she shuts herself in her room to sulk, slamming the door.

She couldn’t wait for this week to be over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Mine Tumblr](https://rusted-crutches.tumblr.com/)

**Author's Note:**

> [Feel free to yell at me on tumblr if you enjoyed!](https://rusted-crutches.tumblr.com/)


End file.
